The present invention relates to an automatic device for the selection of the needles of a circular machine for knitted goods, which permits the manual selection from the exterior of the machine of the stitches characteristic of cable-stitch machines or there being the possibility of arranging cancellation, loop, or clearing in each position and in a disposition of needles equivalent to the conventional machines with two needle paths, all of this with the added feature of being able to cancel the programming and working of the sections as desired.
There exist many solutions which are applied in circular knitting machines for obtaining different stitches, from the simple machines for plain fabric to the complex solutions employed for electronic needle selection. This is represented by the development of many systems of selection jacks, cam sections, needles, etc., which with more or less success have resulted in machines which are more or less convenient to operate, this being closely related to two factors. The first is that the machine gives few incidents during its operation. The second, equally important, is that the machine is very easy to operate, especially in the preparations which are necessary for arranging pattern changes.
There has always been a divergence between obtaining ease of operation and obtaining a high machine speed. In this way, a considerable increase of machine speed is obtained by the use of interchangeable cams to execute different stitches, since this permits the use of locked cam tracks to make the needle butts follow the path of cancellation, loop, or clearing, in a completely guided manner, which naturally permits high speed operation. The said system is generally arranged with removable and changeable cams, but for the said operation it is necessary to demount the sections of the machine and to effect the substitution of eccentrics in accordance with the desired fabric structure. With the said solution, there are obtained very productive machines which are used for producing large runs of fabric, with infrequent changes of fabric structure.
The present invention endeavors to include another field of fabric production, in which the machine provides great facility of preparation and is arranged to change the stitches contained in given zones of the garment, for which there are arranged automatic mechanisms for cancellation of positions, providing great facility of control, since it is possible to modify the programmed stitches without the necessity of demounting any element of the machine.
With this there is obtained a circular knitting machine which is relatively simplified, with the possibility of being programmed to knit at, or cancel, specified positions of the machine, in combination with a system of automatic stripers which are able to cut the yarn in the cancelled positions and to return it for delivery at the moment when a cancelled position passes to the status of a position which knits. This system can be applied in one of the needle beds and combine it with an electronic needlexe2x80x94needle selection in the second needle bed, or can even be applied to both needle beds.
All of the above makes the prior art machine into a model which is more versatile, with an infinite possibility of stitches.